Favs and not so favs

Happy Friday,

How was your week? Are you slowly shifting to holiday spirit instead of trying to wrap up a million projects before year-end? 

This week, I felt like sharing some of my favs and not-so-favs of 2023. 

An easy list of fails for me this year is hands down Bud Light and Twitter, now X, who wrote beautiful case studies on what to do if you feel like whipping out billions in brand equity and checking none of the secret sauce ingredients list of brand building; 

- Being authentic

- Epic storytelling

- Convey an emotional benefit, not a functional benefit

The best rebrand of the year belongs to Barbie, who engineered a masterclass in rehabilitating a brand that had fallen out of consumer favour. 

Trend-wise, I truly enjoyed these two this year:

- How often do you think about the Roman Empire?

- Girl Maths 

- And the L.A. Times spoiling a crucial Succession episode

Brands have also treated us to some great storytelling through advertising: 

- Liquid Death and Internet Haters

- Dove and the Cost of Beauty

- Battle of Baddest and Let’s get ready to rumble

- Uber and Best friends

- Velveeta and La Dolce Velveeta

- Ocean Spray and Power your party

- Stella Artois and Probability

- Adidas and The Original Impossible

- Ikea and Proudly Second best

All have checked the box for me, from storytelling, casting, music, copywriting, execution and stellar on-brand messaging.

To wrap up 2023, watch Year in Search, play the Most Search Playground or search the Time Capsule for the top trends that piqued our curiosity from the start of Google. 

One more before the holiday break

See you next week